Hillary Clinton formally nominated for US president

Washington, July 27 (IANS) Hillary Clinton has been formally anointed Democratic presidential candidate, becoming the first woman to run for the White House on behalf of a major US political party.

“Are we ready to make some history?” asked Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, secretary of the on-going Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia when a roll call vote by delegates began on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

About one and half hour later, the 68-year-old former secretary of state, who enjoys near universal name recognition after almost four-decade public life, exceeded the 2,382-delegate threshold needed to clinch the nomination amid huge applause in the hall.

The tally included the overwhelming support by unpledged delegates or superdelegates for her. Superdelegates are party leaders who are free to vote at the party’s convention.

However, her historic victory was overshadowed by the fallout of damaging leakage of internal emails revealing backroom bias against Clinton’s rival Bernie Sanders during bitter primaries.

The revelation sparked protests by thousands of Sanders supporters as the four-day convention started in Philadelphia on Monday.

Democratic Party unanimously nominates Clinton for president – a first for women

Philadelphia (US), July 27 (IANS) Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday becoming the first woman to be nominated by a major political party for the president of the US after a dramatic end to a fractious campaign when her insurgent rival, Bernie Sanders, had her nominated unanimously by acclamation.

When the voting of all the states and territories were announced, Sanders asked to suspend the process and nominate her by acclamation without counting the delegate votes. The Convention immediately approved the nomination with loud cheers.

However, some of his supporters persisted in opposing Clinton and shouted their opposition.

The formal nominating session began with Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu to be elected to Congress, invoking Mahatma Gandhi to formally nominate Sanders, the progressive with broad appeal.

Gabbard spoke of the revolutionary changes Sanders brought to the election process and the political discourse with his progressive, anti-establishment agenda, and said the movement would continue. She quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s quotation: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchableAfaith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

“We will fight for the change we need and we will never forget our leader,” she said.

Earlier as the counting of delegates from states and territories continued, a young Indian woman, Struti Palaniyappan introduced Iowa’s voting announcement. Sanders won the majority only in 11 states and territories.

His state, Vermont, passed its turn to announce its vote and after all the states had announced theirs, its leaders took their turn and announced a majority for him. Sanders dramatically stood up to ask for suspending the voting and nominate by acclamation.

But the party still has to get all his supporters on board as some persisted in opposing the Clinton nomination.